


A Certain Boundary Breaker

by BorrowingZe



Category: Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index, Touhou Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28787577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorrowingZe/pseuds/BorrowingZe
Summary: She will break down boundaries - between science and magic, man and monster, anything - to get at her goal.To save the world.Raildex/Touhou fusion self-insert as Maribel Hearn.
Relationships: Maribel Hearn & Usami Renko
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

That morning, when I felt a nudge on my shoulder, I was in the middle of one of my rather fantastical dreams - fighting creatures based off of chess-style knights using rifles and flame-enchanted swords, saving crowlike creatures from death and then accepting dirty money from one who looked like an anime human male crow which later on turned out to be illusory and filled with nonexistent notes of currency and fair vouchers or something - and so the nudge didn’t quite register but to change my own dream slightly. I groaned, fidgeting in my sleep.

There was another nudge. “Wake up,” I heard a voice whisper in my ear.

“Mrgblr,” I said, still somewhat engrossed in my dream.

The nudge was harder this time. “I said wake up!” The whisper sounded harsher.

That was when I began to stir. I groaned again, shifting a bit under my comfortable sheets - made out of a microfiber, I think? I wasn’t sure - and my eyes began to open slowly as I participated in the monumental task of sitting up from my sleep.

“Finally, the sleepyhead awakens.”

I was too tired to even respond to the relatively feminine voice that came towards me, but for some reason, something felt off about it. Instead I just yawned, my eyes closing again as I did so. My head was throbbing a little too.

“C’mon, chop chop! Class is soon!”

That’s when my brain actually noticed what felt wrong about the situation right now.

First, I didn’t know anyone with a voice like that to live in my house.

Second, I was on break from classes right now at university.

And last but not least, the voice was speaking in Japanese.

My eyes opened wide, and through the haze, I could just barely see a girl standing in front of me, a bed a couple meters behind her, with a pair of glasses on her face and short brown hair tied into pigtails.

As my vision cleared, I could see her brown eyes more clearly, as well as her Japanese features and the slight smirk on her face, as well as the school uniform I could have sworn I had seen somewhere before. I could also see the plainly unfamiliar (yet unsettlingly familiar) room which I had never been in.

All I could do was stare, an expression on my face that was probably as dumb as I felt.

The girl’s smirk fell, becoming a neutral expression and then a frown soon after. “...Merry? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I replied automatically. It was in Japanese as well, though my voice, which sounded very different, wavered slightly as I spoke. I had no idea what I could do, my brain going a mile a minute to try and find something, anything, to do to get out of this mess.

My brain also took note of what she called me - ‘Merry.’ It seemed oddly familiar somehow.

Fortunately, I was saved from having to think of anything when I saw the girl sigh. “Did you have one of those dreams again?”

She had given me an out. One that I had to take.

I looked down at the ground, ignoring the pang of guilt growing inside me, and nodded.

The floor was made of carpet.

“Oh, Merry,” the girl said, her voice full of empathy. “Don’t worry; big sis Sumireko is here. Do you need a day off?”

That name sent alarm bells ringing through my head. I tried my best to just keep my head down and nod again, but my nod felt a little shaky this time.

“Alright, then,” Sumireko said. “I’ll tell Sensei and little Renko about it. Make sure to keep up with your studies though, okay? And don’t forget to take care of yourself; I’ll bring you some breakfast from the café, but you can get yourself lunch if you need.”

Before I could nod again, I heard an odd sound - not quite a pop but not quite a woosh.

When I looked up, she was gone.

That instant, it took all the self-control I had to not immediately start hyperventilating.

I was dropped into a patently impossible scenario with a fictional character, not to mention  _ as _ a fictional character, into a school where it seemed like people had superpowers.

I realised I was shaking when a few strands of golden blonde hair fell in front of my eyes. I brushed them out of the way of my vision, but I could see my hands shiver as I did.

Just more evidence that I had stolen someone else’s body.

“I can’t let her see me like this,” I mumbled to myself, noting the differences in my voice.

It was a little higher, although not by much. Just more proof I’d switched bodies with some poor unfortunate soul. And one who I was pretty sure I knew from fiction.

I screwed my eyes shut and took a deep breath, counting to 5 as I did so. I held my breath in for 7 seconds. 5 seconds later, I breathed out again.

I went through that cycle one, maybe two, more times before I felt my body start to relax. I opened my eyes, about to start another cycle, when I saw.

In front of me, floating in the air, was a black line suspended in mid-air.

I breathed in sharply. My heart, which had just slowed down, started hammering in my chest once again.

The distant thought that all these sensations felt too real to be a dream flitted through my mind.

That was a gap. A boundary.

Whatever you wanted to call it, that was the thing which Yukari Yakumo of the Touhou series was known to be able to manipulate, and that Maribel Hearn - otherwise known as  _ Merry  _ \- was known to be able to see and move through to some degree.

There was one thing that seemed wrong, though - wasn’t Maribel supposed to be in her twenties, in University?

My brain latched onto that thought, trying it’s best to detach me from the situation by analysing something else.

From what I could tell, Sumireko (at least, as she called herself) looked to be about 13, maybe 14 - and she’d treated me like I was some kind of junior of hers. If that meant what I think it meant…

A knock on the door started me out of my thoughts. Flinching, I did my best to gather myself before the door opened, looking over towards it. Oddly, though, the gap in reality seemed to be gone.

On the other side was Sumireko, a sheepish smile on her face as she scratched the back of her head with one hand with the other holding a paper bag, keeping the door held open with an elbow. “Sorry for taking so long, Merry. Miss Maika kept chewing me out for using my powers in the dorms.” She chuckled. “Thank goodness the dorm mistress didn’t see.”

Dorm mistress? Miss Maika (okay, it wasn’t really ‘miss,’ but ‘-san’ doesn’t feel quite right to use in conjunction with English)? Those names were oddly familiar, and I couldn’t for the life of me tell why.

“Anyway, I got you a croissant - all butter, just the way you like it.” For emphasis, Sumireko jiggled the paper bag around, the croissant inside getting jostled around as she did, rustling the paper bag. “There’s still some milk and water left in the fridge too, if you want either of those.”

As Sumireko pushed the door open further with a foot and walked in, all I could do was nod dumbly. I did like butter croissants - just like Maribel did too, apparently. Something familiar in this crazy situation.

“Thank you!” I blurted out.

Sumireko’s smile softened. “Don’t worry about it.” She put the croissant down at a desk close to the bed I was in, then reached down to grab a bag from her own side. She turned around to face the door again, when she paused.

She looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Maribel?” she said.

The only reason that name didn’t make me flinch was because I had thought about it earlier. “...yeah?” I asked, keeping my voice soft because there was no way Sumireko wouldn't notice something off if I spoke up.

“Stay safe, okay?”

I could only nod, really. I didn’t know how else to respond that wouldn’t make her worry even more.

With that said, Sumireko opened the door, walked through, and pulled it closed behind her, leaving me alone to wallow in my own misery and confusion.

What the hell was going on?

The only reason I hadn’t panicked was everything had been coming at me too fast to do so. I was apparently Maribel Hearn (I hadn’t heard my last name but I wasn’t stupid) who lived in some sort of student dorm with Sumireko Usami, who apparently existed in the same timeframe as Maribel and Renko. I also had to go to some sort of school, if the oddly familiar uniform hadn’t tipped me off.

I shuddered. I’d finished school a few years back; I wasn’t the type of person who found it easy to focus on schoolwork. It was very difficult for me to do so, regardless of whether I knew it or not.

Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about that uniform. It was way too familiar for it to be a coincidence. I screwed my eyes shut, trying to imagine the uniform I remembered seeing Sumireko wearing. A short-sleeved shirt with a brown vest over the top, a short dark brown skirt, and a symbol on the vest that I could have sworn I had… seen before…

My eyes opened. “No way,” I mumbled to myself. “This can’t be possible.”

The first time since I had awoken, I stood up. I felt a little unsteady at first, but I grabbed on to the back railing of the bed, slowly getting used to my new sense of balance.

After a few seconds, I felt mostly fine - mostly being the operative word. I let go of the railing, looking around the room.

My eyes zeroed in on a closet near my bed. Stepping towards it, I staggered as I did, still a little unused to my new center of gravity. Finally reaching it after a couple of steps, I pulled the door open.

There were several of the uniforms hanging on coat hangers in the closet.

I pulled one out, fumbling with it a little, but gradually getting a hold of it. Turning it around to face me, I looked at the symbol on the front, and felt a cold chill going down my spine.

Staring at me was the logo of the prestigious girl’s middle school, Tokiwadai Middle School.

~~~~~

I lay on the bed which was apparently now mine, staring dully at the ceiling. I’d eaten the croissant and drank some milk alongside it, and haphazardly stuffed the paper bag in the bin, but I had no idea how much time had passed - ten minutes, thirty, an hour, I couldn’t really tell. I’d been in a state close to catatonia.

That’s when I heard a buzzing noise by the door.

I blinked a couple of times, turning my head to look at it. There was an intercom system there, I was pretty sure - I remembered it from a few episodes of the Toaru series, if I was right about which dorm building I was in.

Not that I could really rely on a silly series anymore. This was real life, not some sort of TV show or light novel.

I stood up unsteadily, walking over as the intercom buzzed once more. Thankfully the buttons were labeled (in Japanese, but I apparently knew Japanese now so that didn’t really matter too much), and so I pressed the button to accept. “Hello?” I said, my voice soft.

“Is this Maribel Hearn’s room?” I heard a voice say. It was a feminine voice, one that sounded a bit like something you’d expect a mother to have.

I blinked. “Um, yes,” I said, then quickly tacking on “I’m Maribel,” and trying to ignore the odd feeling of referring to myself by a name that wasn’t my own. Wasn’t Maribel supposed to be at school today? What if I hadn’t felt so overwhelmed still by the whole ‘suddenly possessing a fictional character in the world of another fictional character’ thing that I was trying desperately not to think about, and had ended up going to school? Why ask for me after school had started anyway?

“Ah, excellent,” the voice said, a pleased tone to it. “I have some mail for you. May you buzz me in?”

In hindsight, I probably should have been more hesitant. After all, someone delivering mail in the middle of a school day to the student sounded just a little suspicious, didn’t it?

Thanks to this impossible situation putting me thoroughly off-balance, though, I blindly accepted. “S-sure,” I stammered, still a little unused to my new voice.

I held the button that unlocked the dorm doors for a second. “Thank you,” the voice said, a pleased tone to it. Soon after, the indicator on the intercom that showed the door was open glowed a bright green.

My anxiety spiked. I frowned, my heart beating faster. How did I know I hadn’t let in someone against the rules?

After a few seconds, I came to the conclusion that all I could do was wait. I stepped back from the door, trying to ignore the pounding in my heart, and sat down on my bed.

A minute or so later, I heard a knocking on the door.

I started, before calling out “Coming,” rather weakly at that.

Standing up, I walked over towards the door and twisted the doorknob, pulling it open.

Standing at the doorway was a young lady. She looked to be in her early twenties, with almost yellow short blonde hair and a snapback cap on her head with an odd logo of a few clouds, in a postwoman’s attire with a messenger bag around her shoulder. Her eyes, which looked like a bright yellow, lit up when she saw me. “Ah, you would be Maribel?” she asked, her voice full of delight.

I nodded, trying not to wince at the lie. “Y-yes,” I mumbled.

“Alright. Here’s the mail,” the postwoman said. Out of her messenger bag, she pulled a letter, handing it to me. “Please, make sure to read it right away. Now, I shall be off. Take care, okay?”

I took the letter, nodding halfheartedly.

I watched as she turned around, walking off.

I was about to close the door when I frowned. For just a split second, it looked like I saw one of those tiny gaps in reality again…

I blinked once, and it was gone, as was the postwoman. But I still felt an odd feeling of foreboding.

I closed the door. Turning around, I sat back on the bed, and looked down at the letter, reading the address on the envelope.

‘Maribel Hearn,

Tokiwadai Middle School Dormitory,

District 7,

Academy City.’

That wasn’t the whole address, of course. Only the important parts.

What could be so important that I had to read the letter instantly, though?

I turned the letter upside down, reading the sender’s name.

I froze.

“N-no, that can’t be right,” I mumbled. I read over it again, one more time, just to make absolutely sure that I was reading it correctly.

I felt my stomach drop.

‘Yakumo Industries,

Yatsugatake Mountains,

Honshu

Japan.’

I tore the envelope open as swiftly as I could. My hands shook as I unfolded the letter, crinkled as it was.

‘Dear Maribel,’ the first line read. My eyes flicked downwards, reading the second line as well as I could while the paper shook in my hands.

‘To answer your first question: no, I wasn’t the one who did this. I have no idea who did this either - I just thought I could give you a little help where I had none, the first time around.’

“What the hell?” I breathed. The words ‘the first time around’ implied that this had happened before or something - and given who this letter was probably from…

I read onwards.

‘To answer your second: yes, I am you, from a possible future. Not the same one as you’re going to go through now, of course, since I don’t remember getting a letter from myself. I don’t want you to end up going down the same path I did, or to leave you hanging out to dry. I’m not cruel like whatever did this to us.’

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. This was- I couldn’t even process this properly.

Still, I read on.

‘Thirdly - yes, that was Ran who delivered that letter. Don’t ask me how she exists in this world - it would take a very long explanation to tell you about what led up to all of this - but don’t worry. She won’t hurt you. Don’t ask how Sumireko and Renko exist either - I’m not sure on that myself.’

At this point I was just trying not to hyperventilate.

‘Now, before you read this next part, breathe. Deep breaths in, hold them, then deep breaths out. I know how I was back then, so try your best not to panic.’

Before panic could grip me, I tried my best to follow the instructions of the letter, thinking back. In 5, hold for 7, out 5.

I did it a few times. I don’t remember how many. I was still a little shaken, though.

My eyes flicked down towards the final paragraph of the letter.

‘Now, I’ll put the important things here. You’ll learn more over time, I’d imagine - at a different rate from me, but your life has already diverged from my own.

‘Your name is Maribel Hearn. You’re 13 years old, and are a 7th grade student at Tokiwadai Middle School. You are a Level 4 Gemstone Esper, with the ability of Boundary Break - you can open gaps in reality and go through them to any place within 100 meters, and bring whatever objects you’re holding with you. Don’t worry - you’ll get better.

‘You share dorms with Sumireko Usami. She’s a 14-year old 8th grade Level 4 Gemstone Esper as well - and she’s one of the most likely candidates to be the next Level 5. She’s your friend, and the older sister of your best friend, Renko Usami.

‘That’s all I can really tell you at the moment. My hands are tied.’

My eyes flicked down to the bottom line of the letter, and as I read out loud the words I had dreaded, but expected, to be there, I felt the world drop away.

“Love, Yukari Yakumo.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I stared at the paper in my hands, unable to do much more than hold onto that piece of paper at that moment.

“What the hell?” I whispered, my voice shaking.

Even though I tried my best not to think about the implications of the letter, or who was sending it to me, I couldn’t help but shudder a little.

I screwed my eyes shut, hoping that when I opened them the paper would be blank, or there’d be a different letter entirely, or something, anything, that would calm me down at least a little.

When I opened my eyes again, however, I found myself staring at the same piece of paper, with the same words on it.

It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.

But to be honest, waking up as a fictional character in an alternate universe also wasn’t possible, and given how that was the situation I was in? I couldn’t really rule anything out.

At the time, however, I didn’t exactly want to think about how an alternate version of me had apparently lived through all of this before, in a world where she didn’t exist, and as a result had become an extremely powerful Youkai of some sort. That sort of thing brings to mind all sorts of weird, existential questions, which I  _ really _ didn’t want to think about at the time.

So I did the only thing I could do that wouldn’t make me panic even more: I sat down on the bed, closed my eyes and breathed.

5 in. 

As I breathed in, my shaky fingers tried to fold the paper so as to not show the letter again.

Hold for 7.

It took a bit longer than it normally would, but the letter folded in on itself after about a few seconds of fumbling.

5 out.

I opened my eyes again.

Looking down at the piece of paper, I flinched. I knew I hadn’t actually avoided thinking about the existential implications of this, just postponed another breakdown for later. But as my thoughts about the implications of the words on that piece of paper haunted me, my eyes widened as I realised something.

My power.

My psychic power, Esper ability, whatever you wanted to call it, had been detailed in that letter.

I unfolded the letter as fast as I could. I read through the letter as fast as I could, written in English, searching for what little I remembered.

Even though as I looked through it, I was trying my hardest to stuff any baggage about the rest of the letter and its implications in a deep, dark corner of my head, I couldn’t help but catch a few glimpses of the less important and more distressing parts of the letter. Still, I managed to find the info about my ability in a few seconds, and those thoughts quickly faded away as I read through the paragraph once again.

This time around, I tried my best to instil the information in my brain: I - or rather, Maribel - was a Level 4 Gemstone, apparently, with an ability known as ‘Boundary Breaker’ (which felt just a little ironic but made some sense, I guess?) that let me open up boundaries in reality, gaps, from where I was to another place within 100 meters of me.

In more practical terms, my power, as it was now, seemed like it was some sort of portal-based power, with the unsaid benefit of being able to see invisible boundaries in the fabric of reality.

I frowned. That couldn’t be right. I knew Maribel’s ability in canon Touhou allowed her to be able to open boundaries to places much further away, and, well, if what was in the rest of the letter was really true… there was no way that this was all my apparent power could do.

There was, however, one way this would make sense: if this was all I could do  _ now _ .

There was also one simple problem with that: I didn’t exactly know HOW to use my power.

I folded the letter closed again, this time slightly more calmly, and placed it on the bed next to me. I tried to put on a determined expression, which ended up looking more like a wobbly frown. If I wanted to survive in this world, I would have to figure out how to use it.

I tried to think back to the first time I saw what I thought might have been a gap, or boundary, or whatever you wanted to call it. I’d been freaking out (I still was, I was just better at hiding it right now) about being just dropped here as Maribel and having to hide my anxiety from Sumireko, and I’d tried to do that breathing exercise that I liked - breathing in for 5 seconds, holding it for 7, then out for 5 more seconds.

I felt my eyes widen as an idea sprung to mind. What if I tried doing that while imagining a gap opening? I’d have to make it small, so as to not disturb people, and I’d probably have to imagine where both ends went simultaneously, which honestly sounded really hard - how on earth was I supposed to have two images in my mind at once? Even thinking about it was making me a little dizzy. And I would be willing to bet the actual Maribel was able to do that without closing her eyes and focusing.

Still, it wasn’t like I could learn how to do it without trying, was it?

So I looked around me, thinking about where I wanted to open the boundaries. After a couple of seconds, I decided - I wanted to open a boundary on the left and right side of me.

Closing my eyes, I breathed in.

What happened next, well… it’s really difficult to describe to someone who doesn’t have the ability to do it themselves, but I’ll try my best.

Essentially, an image of both locations of where I wanted the boundaries to be formed in my mind’s eye. They both overlapped each other but at the same time didn’t, each being separate.

I held my breath.

That’s when I felt it. An odd energy, buzzing inside of me and leaking out of me. It was nothing like I’d ever felt before, really.

It felt amazing.

And my brain somehow just  _ knew _ what to do next.

I breathed out, and I could feel the energy force the air open, creating what could only be called a gap in reality. Odd math equations that I somehow understood perfectly flitted through my head, and forced themselves into reality.

My eyes opened slowly. I glanced over to my left, catching a glimpse of something odd out of the corner of my eye.

I slowly turned my head to face the sight - I knew what it was, but still, my brain had to see it to fully believe it.

And I saw the gap.

It was barely the size of my head, though somehow I knew I could make it larger. It looked like a sore in the fabric of reality. The inside of it glowed a sort of odd, shifting purple, and the edges were a thick black line, like something out of a cartoon or anime. It was level with my left shoulder, about a foot away from it.

It was surreal, but at the same time, too real.

At that point, my eyes were wide open in awe, and my mouth sat slightly open. “Holy shit,” I said.

I had powers.

Real, actual superpowers.

I turned my head to my right, thankful that the bed was very cushy. A near identical gap floated in the air there, the same shifting purple inside of it and thick black outline around it.

A thought popped into my head after a second. This was connected to the second gap, wasn’t it?

Following that thought to its logical conclusion, I held my left hand up to the left gap, one finger pointing towards it, before hesitating, stopping less than an inch away from the opening. Several anxious thoughts flew through my head at that moment - what if I’d done it wrong? What if it didn’t work? What if I’d made it more dangerous than necessary?

I took a deep breath, and tried my best to ignore those thoughts. My hand shaking, I moved it closer and closer, and pushed it through the gap.

Oddly enough, it didn’t feel weird. It felt like my arm was just moving through air, like normal - and most important of all, it was still there.

Slowly, I moved my arm further and further in. Then I felt it.

My extended finger was poking something made of fabric, with a soft surface underneath. At the same time, I could feel something putting pressure on my right shoulder.

I turned my head to the right.

My mouth dropped open.

I could see an arm coming out of the gap on my right - Maribel’s arm, my arm. My left pointer finger was poking into my right shoulder without bending around my front or back.

I stared. Pulling my left arm away, the arm coming out of the gap on my right pulled away. I opened my left hand, and saw it happen on my right.

I pulled my left hand out, and the arm to my right retreated back through the gap, disappearing. I put it back in, and the arm returned.

It was surreal.

I pulled my left arm back out again, staring at it. Honestly, I didn’t think I had it in me to do something like that again. It was amazing, almost breathtaking in fact, but it was also terrifying as all hell. If anything, I wanted to close the gap right away and save practicing with my power for a later date.

Oddly enough, less than a second later, the atmosphere of the room felt different - like something had changed.

I looked to my left again, and took in a sharp breath through my nostrils.

The gap was gone.

“So. That happened,” I said.

I could hear my heartbeat beating really fast. I was just sitting there, staring at the air where the gap had just disappeared. I was pretty sure I knew why it had disappeared, too - I’d been thinking about closing it and it had closed, just like that.

It honestly felt a lot simpler than I had imagined Esper abilities to be, although I was pretty sure it would be a lot harder to create gaps in the heat of the moment.

Still, I would have to practice that a little later. Right now I really didn’t feel like it.

I felt myself shudder. That whole thing had creeped me the hell out - even if it was a normal aspect of Maribel’s life, it wasn’t one that I wanted to face right away.

Instead, my brain, which was now unable to distract itself from the situation, desperately searched for something, anything, that I could use to get my mind off all of this craziness.

I couldn’t use my phone to distract me, after all-

I stiffened, realisation flashing through my brain.. “Hold up. There’s no way Maribel doesn’t have a phone.” I stood up, steadying myself the best I could, and looked around the room.

At that point, it occurred to me that I hadn’t really looked around the room. I had just looked at different parts of it.

Looking at the complete picture now, I felt an odd pang of nostalgia go through me. It felt like a hotel, the kind you would go to on a big trip, or the day before an event.

It didn’t quite look the exact same as the room I had seen in a certain anime, though. For one, this room had a flatscreen TV on one of the walls. A clock, too - my mind noted that it looked to be about 11:30 or so.

I felt my muscles involuntarily flex. When I was in Middle School, it had usually started at about 8:30, and since this was a highly prestigious school as well as a Japanese one, I was fairly certain it started even earlier.

Doing a little bit of math, I blinked as I worked it out. I’d probably been woken up by Sumireko at about 7 AM or something. That meant I had been lying still on my bed for about four and a half hours.

Still, 11:30 was pretty early in the morning for me - and I would probably have to get my sleep schedule back to a very good one if I wanted to not get flunked out of this school.

I grimaced. I liked sleeping. It was one of the few things that could take away how monotonous days were, with how colourful my dreams were. I was almost nocturnal at this point, even.

But that was beside the point. I scanned the room further, turning my body as I did, and noted a few conspiratorial posters on the wall opposite my bed (I felt a smile grow on my face at the ‘I want to believe’ poster, with a picture of a UFO on it. Sumireko had good taste), and then I saw it - left on the desk behind my bed.

It looked like someone had taken an iPhone and made it wafer thin and transparent. I walked over towards it, stumbling once but catching myself on the railing of my- Maribel’s bed.

I steadied myself, taking one more step before I stood in front of the desk.

The wafer-thin, transparent phone stared at me. It had no unlocking device, no obvious camera - nothing that implied I could even use it as a phone.

I reached out and grabbed onto it carefully, pulling it up to my face. Nearly instantly, it became an opaque orange, before I heard a clicking sound and saw what could only be the home screen of a phone, circular icons of all different types displaying themselves.

The main page of the phone seemed relatively bland - Maribel hadn’t customised it in any way, it seemed. There was, however, a little bell icon in the top right corner of the phone’s screen, coloured red and jiggling.

That must have been the notification bubble or whatever this phone used. Hesitantly, I positioned the phone in my left hand before pressing down on it with my right pointer finger.

It brought up a white rounded rectangle on the screen, showing several circular icons with little red numbers above them. There was also an ‘x’ next to each of them, and a ‘clear all’ button in the middle of the top.

The first icon was a text message one. The red number above that read ‘7.’

I breathed in sharply through my mouth. Someone had been messaging Maribel.

My finger hit the icon near instantly. It brought up a text message app.

The two numbers that were highlighted were in English - Sumireko and Renko.

I froze.

I didn’t know if I wanted to meet Renko right now. I felt like she would instantly realise I wasn’t her best friend - and Maribel was absolutely her best friend. The two probably knew each other like the back of their hands at this point.

Instead I pressed on the messages that were Sumireko’s.

Unfortunately, Sumireko had only left one message - it was a rather long one, but the long and short of it was that she’d told my teacher that I had one of those dreams (which I hadn’t, and I didn’t even know much about) and my teacher had excused me from today, knowing about my pre-existing medical condition, which I didn’t know about myself. Just one more thing to try and find out and worry myself to death over, I suppose.

She’d also apparently told Renko over the phone. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, but it did make me feel a bit more scared. I really, really didn’t want to meet Renko.

I pressed back on the screen, marvelling a little at how it felt to try and get my mind off what I was about to do.

Now I was on the main message page, with a big bright highlighted ‘Renko’ staring me in the face.

I gulped.

“Well, here goes nothing, I guess,” I said. My voice wavered a little, but nothing too bad.

I pressed the name.

“Gmornin Merry,” the first message read, sent at about 7:30 AM. The next message, sent about 5 minutes later, was a panicked “Merry, are you alright?”

One more followed, less than a minute later. “Merry, what’s wrong??” My blood ran cold. I hoped Renko wasn’t going to come here to check up on me...

There was a break of about 20 minutes then, and the next message made me feel stark relief. “Big Sis told me you had one of your dreams today. You’re probably not going to read this for a bit if that’s true, but I hope you’re alright Merry; take care of yourself today okay?”

One more message a minute later added on a little “Also don’t forget about tomorrow night!”

The next message looked to be sent just a few minutes ago. “Hey Merry, remember to eat lunch okay? Don’t go hungry.”

I blinked. Lunch? Instinctively, I pulled down the top menu of the phone.

It seemed like this phone still had one of those, because when I did it showed the time once again - 11:37 - and the date, July the 10th 2023.

It was actually pretty close to lunch time, wasn’t it? I didn’t feel very hungry, but I was sure that was-  _ growl _ -about to change.

But to get lunch, that meant I had to leave the dorm room. And that meant that I had to actually confront my transmigration (of a sort).

I gulped, but steeled myself. I couldn’t really do much on an empty stomach - let alone face a new world. And a croissant really wasn’t enough to fill my belly enough to do that.

I placed the phone down on the desk, and took a deep breath in, and breathed out. Then I looked over at the closet.

It was probably a good idea to get dressed first, though.


End file.
